Book Description

Extensive pictorial anthology chronicles extraordinary career of the man who changed aviation history. Over 250 rare photographs, accompanied by detailed captions depict Lindbergh in childhood photos, shots of his "barnstorming" days, views of the young pilot examining damage to his Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" after crashing in 1923 and touring with the Spirit of St. Louis, and much more.
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Reviews (2)

A wonderful work of fiction...
Bruno Richard Hauptmann was the kidnapper and murderer of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. No speculative or fictionalized evidence by Anthony Scaduto or anyone else can change that unalterable fact.

I would give this book zero stars except that Amazon won't let me. What a waste of paper.

good book, more interesting in real life
this was a good book. i'd like to get that out before hand. i think that in real life, the actual event was more mysterious and intriging. while i'm not rating a movie, i think that an event that captured an entire nation's attention and sombody accused of killing "the eaglet" that everybody hated, could have used a better book. i would suggest reading about the "Lindbergh Kidnapping" before you read this book, so you don't get lost. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In 1927, 25-year-old American aviator Charles Lindbergh earned international fame by making the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean (and won a prize of $25,000 in the bargain). This lively book, a publication of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, celebrates that great accomplishment in words and images. Museum curators Dominick Pisano and F. Robert van der Linden draw on the Smithsonian's holdings (among them Lindbergh's then-state-of-the-art monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis) to offer a portrait of the famed pilot in the context of his time. They emphasize Lindbergh's calculated daring--he did not carry a parachute or heavy radio, for instance, reckoning that neither would be useful should he have to ditch at sea--and his abilities, unusual for a man of his age and the time. They also chart Lindbergh's progress from young flyer to world hero, considering his later career without shying away from its unpleasant aspects--notably, his early embrace of Adolf Hitler's regime and his insistence that the United States not take the side of England and France in the impending global war, at considerable cost to his reputation. Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Lindbergh's flight and the centenary of his birth, this book makes a fine gift for aviation and history buffs. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Summary
A short but encompassing summary of Lindbergh's life. Unlike Berg's biography, it omits all but the most important details but gives an accurate overview. Well written and interesting. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Young Lindbergh drives a car around rural Minnesota in 1916
The books in the Diaries, Letters and Memories series introduce young readers to real young people from different time periods in American history. Although "The Boyhood Diary of Charles A. Lindbergh, 1913-1915" was written by someone who would grow up to become one of the most famous people of the 20th century, most of these books are just ordinary young men and young women writing about the interesting times in which they lived. In fact, besides some references to wanting to fly, you would never really recognize that this was young Lindbergh. Part of his life is rather unusual since his father was a U.S. Congressman from Minnesota. So when young Charles goes on a train trip, it is because he and his mother are traveling to Washington, D.C. However, the point is clearly to inform young readers about what train travel was like early in the last century. Similarly, when Charles travels around the state with his father, who is running for the Senate, the emphasis is not on the politics but rather on the trials and tribulations of driving an automobile through rural Minnesota in 1916 (it still snowed in May, even back then). Of course, for me the part that hits home is his description of running low on gas and coasting down the hill into Duluth (been there, done that).

These books use the diary entries as they originally appeared, word for word as they were written, with misspellings and mistakes in grammar. Lindbergh writes about boating down the Mississippi from its source at Lake Itasca and tracking wildlife. Detailed sidebars explain about Passenger Trains, the U.S. Congress, and Early Automobiles, complementing the diary entries with additional information. Books in these series go back as far as the diary of Sally Wister, a Colonial Quaker Girl up to Lindbergh, but of these dozen volumes the only other famous people are Louisa May Alcott and Theodore Roosevelt. This is certainly an interesting little series. I have read several books that try to give young students an idea of what life was like in different time periods, and these books do a much better job of that than any of those I have seen so far. ... Read more